Your worst day on the job ?

[NRM_Oz]

Not sure where this should be posted but here goes:

What was your worst ever day on the job ? I don't mean it as you getting a flat battery or coming to work in a grey t-shirt ......... but the day that made you stop and take a deep breath ?

For me I have 2. (1) I was to work my first CPP assignment with this client and at the last minute his regular man asked to do one last job with him. I shook hands and agreed to fly home get rekitted and head off 2 days later. As I flew home I felt uneasy, unable to sleep the short flight home at midnight. With 20 minutes before landing, the Captain approached me for a quiet word and informed me that there had been an accident and my CPP colleague had been killed so the state and federal police would speak with me when we landed. Clients exwife had hired someone to scare him but lost control of the car and hit the CPPO who was working alone. It could have been me who was killed if there was not a last day change.

(2) I am sorry to say it but 11th September 2001 changed my world. I was asleep (it was midnight here) when my phone rang from the USA and I watched in awe at the events unfolding. I did not see any live footage but scrambled to get myself dressed and straight to work (USA based company) as staff were recalled back to work immediately. I had been in the WTC bar in the Southern Tower (?) only a few months before during a 1 day stopover coming back to Sydney. I admit I became a robot and with the Psychiatrists called in by work for a debrief don't really recall much of what went on as it was just 2nd nature to me to do what had to be done.

[bpdblue]

Too many of them

I've had many a bad day, and almost all had to do with the messy dead, or a messy dying.

[JSam21]

Wednesday, Aug. 16th, 2007. The day that 22 year old, St. Louis Police Department Officer, Norvell Brown was shot and killed while on patrol. He was a rookie out on the streets for only 9 months before his death.

I work at the hospital that he was brought to by his backup officer. It was about the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with. Seeing all thoes officers, family members, and well wishers standing outside the ER. I was out there when Chief Mokwa made the announcement. I will never forget that moment... never.

[Penthrox]

The first time I had to draw my duty firearm in self defense. The suspect pulled a knife on my partner as we were doing a cash in transit run through a bad shopping center. I guess the Beretta 92fs pointed square at his chest and my repeated screams to tell him to drop it or I would shoot (as he had it pressed to my partners back at the time. So lethal force would have been justified as it was to protect life not liability). He motioned towards my partners neck with the knife and for anyone who knows a 92fs due to the double action the hammer goes into a pre cocking position just before it fires I gave a final warning and started to pull the trigger, at this moment my partner struck him in the arm dislodging the knife and the offender took off. I reholstered my weapon but could not get the thumb strap on (years of mental conditioning to do this whilst not looking) I carry an Uncle Mikes Pro Retention 3 Holster and luckily there is a trigger guard catch because as I caught this guy I drove my shoulders square into the middle of his back and slammed him to the concrete floor. I yanked his wrist up as he resisted I unfortunately broke his wrist as I cuffed him.

My partner received 2 stab wounds to his lower back unbeknown to both of us at the time of the attack. The reason I could not get the thumb strap on was because of the pre cocked hammer. I was less than a pound off pressure from shooting him.

To this day I look back as though I did the right thing and after two court battles. One for drawing a weapon in a public place and the other for the guy sueing me for breaking his wrist I was found not guilty on the first one and not guilty on the second one. The judge actually said to the guy you are lucky you are not dead because I would have shot.

So yeah worst day of my life at work.

[NRM_Oz]

I also have the 92fs and have thankfully never had to draw on anyone (I think I posted wrongly it was was a 92f before) I do know the mechanics of this firearm. I also have the same holster and spotted the reasons why you could not reholster 100% based on your information. As I was told in my firearms training - better to be judged by 12 than carried out by 6.

[OccamsRazor]

To this day I look back as though I did the right thing and after two court battles. One for drawing a weapon in a public place and the other for the guy sueing me for breaking his wrist I was found not guilty on the first one and not guilty on the second one.

Dude...

Wait, what?

You had a guy attack your partner with a knife and you were charged with drawing a weapon in a public place?

What kinda of stupid ****ing law is that?

Remind me not to visit Australia until I become aggresively disinterested in self-defense.

[N. A. Corbier]

Dude...

Wait, what?

You had a guy attack your partner with a knife and you were charged with drawing a weapon in a public place?

What kinda of stupid ****ing law is that?

Remind me not to visit Australia until I become aggresively disinterested in self-defense.

It seems many commonwealth countries have a very deep cultural dislike of self-defense in general. When dealing with British people, I routinely notice that their entire concept of "proper self defense" is to run very fast and very far while dialing 999 on their cell.

To do anything else is being a silly American warmonger.

[NRM_Oz]

We once were allowed to carry shotguns for armoured car work and that disappeared in the 1990's together with many other armed sites and duties. The firearms regs for security state there are 4 reasons why you can draw your firearm. (1) your life is in danger (2) someone else's life is in danger (3) it is safe to do so (you are not in a crowd) (4) there is no other choice (ie. non lethal force).

Firearms are freely available for criminals to buy and sell and the general public are now being restricted for genunine reasons for owning a work related tool of trade. I have reduced mine to only 3 firearms now as I have no need to have any more than 3 due to the strict BS laws. Criminals can attack a place with firearms but the poor security officer has only a notebook and pen as a method of protecting himself. Even handcuffs and batons are considered a big no-no for security officers.

[Hank1]

The absolute worst day for me was this past June 30th when I was T-boned by another vehicle while I was on duty. The following 4 weeks were not much better!

Be Safe,

Hank

[Penthrox]

The charges where laid because I drew my firearm in a Crowded place (shopping center) It was not until the judge saw the camera footage and the stab wounds (via photos) my partner had that he dismissed the case.

[Maelstrom]

.Firearms are freely available for criminals to buy and sell and the general public are now being restricted for genuine reasons for owning a work related tool of trade. I have reduced mine to only 3 firearms now as I have no need to have any more than 3 due to the strict BS laws. Criminals can attack a place with firearms but the poor security officer has only a notebook and pen as a method of protecting himself. Even handcuffs and batons are considered a big no-no for security officers.

The alteration to our gun laws was a swift politically motivated reaction to the Port Arthur shootings, as far as I see it... the only people effected were those who abided by the law to begin with and turned in their multi-shot weapons... the gun laws didn't prevent those 2 people getting shot attempting to assist a woman being dragged from a taxi and assaulted in Melbourne earlier this year.

As a direct result of that legislation... just how many SOs are working sites that used to be armed positions, unarmed?

[OccamsRazor]

The charges where laid because I drew my firearm in a Crowded place (shopping center) It was not until the judge saw the camera footage and the stab wounds (via photos) my partner had that he dismissed the case.

So much for officer discretion, I guess.

[Penthrox]

We as Armed Security here in Australia are frowned apon because of an incident two or three years ago where an armed officer after being attacked shot and killed someone as they were driving away.

Ever since that point we have been treated a very different way.

[NRM_Oz]

I posted information about that incident in an other post and it made life so difficult now to first get armed work and second to ensure you work with a professional company. I keep my firearms hours up by ensuring I have adequate work every month but I can see myself handing in my firearms licences very soon due to no justification for maintaining them through my own security company.

[SecTrainer]

Obviously, we need gun control in modern society, just as we need all sorts of other forms of control with respect to potentially dangerous things ranging from automobiles to hazardous materials like chlorine gas.

So, I guess all of us are probably "gun control advocates". The question is, control guns with respect to WHOM, and the answer to that is really pretty simple: We want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. The statistics show that we do NOT want to keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, who in the United States use their firearms literally THOUSANDS OF TIMES A YEAR to prevent or interrupt crimes in progress. (Yes, those ARE the statistics.) THE POLICE CANNOT PROTECT US - and we need to get that simple fact straight once and for all.

So, what do we do instead? We pass "gun control laws" that do EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE by taking guns out of the hands of the law-abiding, and doing virtually nothing to keep guns out of the hands of the criminals. Such laws will NEVER reduce the ownership of guns by anyone except those who obey the law...the very people who, if anyone, should have them.

What amazes me no end is that all of the above is very well known, even to those who advocate the very kind of idiotic gun laws that I am referring to. They KNOW that "another gun law" of the sort that we already have is NOT the answer. And yet...in country after country, these cloth-headed people are guaranteeing that the only people in their country who will have guns are the millions of criminals...and the handful of police on the other side. Law-abiding citizens have been robbed of their God-given right to defend their lives and their families...and that is the ONLY result that comes out of such laws. It is a very bad result, and one that we should resist with everything we've got.